~ Fitting, Draping, Designing

McCalls 6394 Redo

I just posted this morning how I failed at this dress pattern and I’m already back to say I’m on my way to a better fitting bodice.

I took Jodi’s suggestion from the comments to add to the side panels instead of the front bodice piece. This made a huge difference. Even using the unaltered front bodice piece I had to take it in at the neck about 1.5 inches, which makes sense, since my first attempt gave me a super large neck opening, for the day I become a Sontaran or develop a thick neck by any other means.

I also pivoted the bust dart from the side to the waist- below the bust, which I like much better. Since I didn’t add more in the form of an additional FBA, starting with the D cup is going to work just fine. All I ended up adding was about 1.25″ to each side panel, giving me just the right amount I needed in an FBA but without adding more room to the neckline- a mistake I made on someone else’s dress a year ago and promised myself I would never make again. Never say never, they say.

Here’s a pic of the newly modified bodice patterns:

And because I love you and I don’t mind showing my soft belly, here’s an actual pic of the bodice. I repurposed a men’s XL button down navy blue corduroy shirt for the next attempt.

The neckline is a drastic change, not as wide as the plaid dress came out. The bust lines need some cleaning up (I didn’t true all my seams)but doing the FBA on multiple pieces is hard stuff so I took as much as I could handle at a time.